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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23080825">Holding Hands</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalaPaellaTortilla/pseuds/MalaPaellaTortilla'>MalaPaellaTortilla</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Gods Are Bastards - D. D. Webb</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Comedy, F/M, Fluff and Smut</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:54:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,598</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23080825</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalaPaellaTortilla/pseuds/MalaPaellaTortilla</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Hands of Avei and Vidius get lost one evening at their classmate's home in Madouri Manor. Wandering Hands lead to unexpected consequences. Somehow, Sherwin Leduc is involved.</p><p>Set after Book 16, chapter 30.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Trissiny Avelea/Gabriel Arquin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Trissiny found herself tired of the party about as soon as she had expected. Not that there was much for her to do there anyway, now that Natchua’s business was done. The nobles in the room -- at least the ones she did not already know -- had not in fact tried to socialize. Apparently the incident from last summer was going to have effects for quite a while still. The boys were still occupied though. Toby had been caught early on by some Lord Hadiashar, who was apparently a devout Omnist and had made significant donations towards their causes. Trissiny couldn’t tell if this was because the nobleman genuinely believed he was the clean sort who wouldn’t get waterboarded by paladins, or because Toby’s reputation hadn’t been as affected by the incident. Gabriel was expectedly busy with his parents, although unlike Toby, Trissiny hadn’t been able to spot him in her quick glance around the room as she decided to leave.</p><p>But slipping out unnoticed wasn’t quite that simple. There were at least half a dozen corridors leading out of the grand ballroom, in addition to various doors leading into other rooms directly. They all looked just identical enough, and she’d been just distracted enough while coming in, that she had no idea which was the way back to their quarters. Well, she would probably find a servant to ask the way wherever she went, and as long as they didn’t redirect her back through the ballroom, it was fine. The corridors themselves were not entirely free of people -- guests who wanted more private conversations, as well as servants carrying trays in and out. In accordance with her plan she picked a corridor that had some servants and no guests that she could see, and set off.</p><p>She’d made it two paces before she heard Gabriel’s voice behind her.</p><p>“Oi, Trissiny! Wait up.”</p><p>So he’d been planning to leave himself, apparently. She noticed him looking rather grouchy as he caught up to her.</p><p>“You’re not spending more time with your parents?” she asked.</p><p>“Hngh,” Gabriel grunted. “Do you remember the way back?”</p><p>“Unfortunately not. I figured I’d just ask the servants further out. You don’t either, I’m guessing? Ravana mentioned you’d been lost a number of times.”</p><p>“I was taking the opportunity to explore this magnificent manor,” he replied without missing a beat. “But I do wanna go back to my room now. Come on, let’s go with your plan,” he said, and fell into step beside her.</p><p>“You’re, ah, having difficulties with your mother?” Trissiny asked in what she hoped was a delicate manner, after a not particularly comfortable silence.</p><p>“If you wanna call her that. Now left?” he added as that particular corridor ended at an intersection with three others going off in different directions.</p><p>“Left’s as good as anything I suppose,” she said as she followed him in that direction. Though there had been servants around on the other side of the corridor, there weren’t any around here now to ask for directions as she’d originally intended. “You know, it strikes me how similar our situations regarding our mothers are. And I…eventually learned to accept Principia.”</p><p>“Your mother isn’t a demon.”</p><p>“Gabe, we’ve gotten to know plenty of demons over the years. Aren’t hethelax supposed to be almost human-like among demon species? And hey, being half-elf isn’t all that respectable in certain quarters.”</p><p>“You wanna compare tragic backstories now?” Gabriel raised an eyebrow, the corner of his lips twitching.</p><p>“Okay fine, mine wasn’t tragic. But you know what I mean, Gabe. I hope you’re not being as unfair to her as other people were to you.”</p><p>“Look who’s trying to overcompensate for being one of those people,” he actually grinned this time.</p><p>“Sorry, I didn’t mean…” Trissiny started before he cut her off. “I’m just messing with you Triss, don’t worry,” he said, and gave her a squeeze on the shoulder. It wasn’t like this was an uncommon gesture from him, but it still made her tense up a bit. And it felt like he did linger a bit longer than usual, though maybe that was just her imagination. Wasn’t that kind of inappropriate?</p><p>“Anyway, I’m not blaming her for my tragic backstory. In fact, I’m sure you relate. I don’t trust her, and she’s suddenly walked in after all these years feeling <em>entitled</em> to be a part of my life.”</p><p>“Well in Principia’s case, her not being part of my life was voluntary, unlike, I’m guessing… Actually, what’s your mom’s name?”</p><p>“Hesthri. Though don’t tell Natchua I got it right, because it’s fun watching her get irritated when she has to correct me.”</p><p>“Gabe…”</p><p>“Left again?” he deflected, as they came upon another intersection. “Actually, I have no idea what we’re aiming for here. I see the servants have disappeared.”</p><p>“I don’t really want to go back to the ballroom to find one. And you know, if we keep taking lefts that’s probably where we’ll circle back to. I’m picking the direction next time.”</p><p>“Yes, General!” he saluted at her. It was a very sloppy salute, and he didn’t even have a sword at hand. “Ah, I’m already having flashbacks to last night, when I walked around for half an hour looking for the bathroom. Well, at least being lost is more pleasant with you as company.”</p><p>Trissiny suppressed a smile at that. Well, he seemed to have gotten over his mood, and it was nice that he enjoyed her company.</p><p>They walked around for twenty more minutes, alternatingly picking directions to go in, and still finding no servants. Were they all occupied with the party? Surely a manor this size had hordes of servants. Gabriel eventually decided he’d had enough.</p><p>“Look, there are plenty of smaller suites here. Would Ravana mind terribly if we decided to crash for one night in a room she didn’t assign to us? I’m tired.”</p><p>“We shouldn’t abuse Ravana’s hospitality,” she objected.</p><p>“Oh please. As if the guests at this party haven’t busied themselves with all sorts of debauchery in her guest rooms. Come on, at least let me use the bathroom in here,” he said as he turned to a door on their right. He tried the latch and it was unlocked, so he went ahead and opened it.</p><p>It wasn’t a suite, it was just a lavish bedroom. And it was occupied. There were at least half a dozen women in various stages of undress draped over the bed and plush armchairs all over the room. Although in this case, that meant that the women who weren’t completely naked were wearing elaborate and unnecessary things on parts of their bodies one would normally consider not critical to modesty, such as the woman wearing a ridiculous feathered mask and wings and nothing else, and the woman wearing a full-body costume made of chainmail, of all things, which had holes over her breasts and crotch. At the centre of the bed in the centre of a room was a naked man with no less than three women in his arms, who did <em>not</em> look pleased to see Gabriel and Trissiny.</p><p>It was Sherwin Leduc.</p><p>“Why is it always you kids?!”</p><p>Gabriel had seemed too shocked to react immediately to the scene, but that was his cue to shut the door. Both of them backed away slowly from it.</p><p>“Did…did you know that was going to happen?” she finally croaked out when they’d put a considerable distance between themselves and the orgy room. She was red in the face from what she’d witnessed.</p><p>“I know it seems appropriate, but no. Omnu’s balls, is that how Ravana and Malivette got him to go along with their plan?”</p><p>“Knowing Sherwin, that’s not unlikely. Nobles and their debauchery indeed...”</p><p>“Hey, nothing wrong with orgies in general. Some of those costumes were pretty nice. It’s just that it’s <em>Sherwin</em> in the middle of it, you know?”</p><p>“Gabriel!”</p><p>“What?” he grinned, noticing she was still blushing. “You do know there were orgies at our reputed institute of higher education, right? But we had the sense to lock the gods damned doors.”</p><p>“I <em>really</em> don’t want to hear the details of what you get up to with Juniper. Both of you are my classmates, and--”</p><p>“Okay, okay. You got me, I wasn’t involved in orgies, personally. But maybe I should’ve asked her about costumes, hmm. She did tend to disdain clothes in general…” Gabriel trailed off with a dreamy expression that Trissiny was sure was for effect.</p><p>She sighed and continued walking. A small part of her, against her better judgement, was curious about Gabriel’s sex life. But it wouldn’t do to indulge it.</p><p>“I wonder how Juniper’s reconciling her lifestyle with her current pursual of Omnism though. Don’t they disapprove of uh, this stuff? Although she did say earlier that she disapproved of that aspect of Omnism,’’ she said after a pause. The regret came immediately. Come on, that was <em>extremely</em> transparent. She had never displayed curiosity about Juniper’s sex life before.</p><p>“Hmm, I wouldn’t know. We’re not…you know, involved anymore. Before the whole Omnist thing, actually. She said I wasn’t in the right state for it, emotionally. Dunno what she meant by that,” he said, looking thoughtful. “I mean, I know she broke off with Natchua because Natchua was getting too emotionally attached… But okay, you don’t need to know about all this.”</p><p>Trissiny refrained from replying. She wasn’t sure if he was insinuating that he was emotionally attached to Juniper there. Well, obviously they were all friends and close, and she liked Juniper and wanted her to be happy. Except Juniper didn’t want to be with Gabriel, right? So it wouldn’t be good if Gabriel got attached. But what did that mean anyway? What more was there to it, if you were close friends already and having sex?</p><p>“You look kind of zoned out,” Gabriel commented, waving a hand in front of her face. “Do you wanna risk trying another door? I wasn’t lying about wanting to go to the bathroom.”</p><p>“What? Oh yeah, let’s try this one,” she said, pointing at a door on their left now.</p><p>They slowly and carefully opened the door only a sliver this time, and peered in. It was dark and silent, so hopefully empty. The hope was confirmed upon opening the door fully, so that light from the corridor made the inside more visible. This one was probably more of a suite, with the door opening to a living room, and other doors leading presumably to bedrooms and such on other walls.</p><p>“Well, I’m gonna leave it to you to turn on the lamps,” Gabriel said, as he briskly walked in and went through one of the doors.</p><p>“You’re presuming we’re gonna stay here!” Trissiny called after him.</p><p>But she did walk in herself, and closed and locked the door behind her. After walking in on Sherwin, it felt inappropriate to not do that, even if she didn’t expect to get to something untoward herself here. That did do away with the visibility in the room, so she made a small solid divine light ball on her palm, and found a sofa to sit down on. There seemed to be only sofas in the room, and no chairs. This one had its back to the main door and was plush and comfortable.</p><p>She heard Gabriel walk back in a couple of minutes.</p><p>“I see you decided to go with mood lighting,” he said, propping down on the other side of the sofa. “That’s neat actually, I never thought of using the solid constructs for light. The whole aura flaring thing seems overkill, you know?”</p><p>“How did you manage to find your way in the dark then?”</p><p>“Obviously demons can see in the dark,” he replied immediately. “Okay, let me see how to do that,” he started shaping light in his palm. It did not look like he was trying to do a simple ball.</p><p>“Are you making an Avenist eagle, you insufferable show-off?” Trissiny said as it dawned on her.</p><p>“For you, my lady,” he said, slipping it on her palm beside her own ball, his fingers lightly brushing against hers. The eagle proceeded to fizzle out in two seconds, without his active support. “I got plenty of practice making naked lady carvings when I was a young lad.”</p><p>“You sound very proud of that,” Trissiny snorted.</p><p>“Well the results speak for themselves. Hey, I just made amends to Avei, even, with the skills I learned,” he said with an insufferable grin. “Are you going to maintain that the whole time though? No luck with the lamps?”</p><p>“I didn’t try. I was hoping to leave soon.”</p><p>“No, don’t say that. I’m tired,” he said, sliding down the length of the sofa. It was frankly ridiculous posture, his legs almost touching hers. “You know, emotional family stuff.”</p><p>She placed her free hand on top of his -- this required some leaning over, as he was on the same side of the sofa as her occupied hand -- and adopted a sincere tone. “I feel your pain and will help you trash Ravana’s extra guest room for emotional support.”</p><p>She felt his hand tense a bit under hers. Okay, what was that? He’d made physical contact with her several times unexpectedly that made her self-conscious. He wasn’t allowed to do that himself.</p><p>She gave him a little pat on the hand and was beginning to withdraw, when she felt him lace his fingers through hers. Was he raising the stakes now? She was sure her facial expression was visibly perturbed.</p><p>“I appreciate that,” his tone was completely sincere, except for the small quirk at the edge of his lips.</p><p>Trissiny was a grown woman and she felt silly about how much she enjoyed that they were now holding hands. They both let themselves stay that way, for some reason. She was vaguely aware people her age were supposed to be into more adult things. But who was she kidding, she’d never experienced romantic hand-holding, and she was going to enjoy her first time. Not that this was necessarily romantic, it was probably just to tease her on his part. They weren’t supposed to be doing it sincerely anyway.</p><p>But it was an uncomfortable position. She was leaning at an odd angle to get her wrong hand to his, and she couldn’t stay that way for long. She had to reluctantly begin to withdraw her hand again.</p><p>“Was that-- I mean, I’m sorry, Triss. It’s not--” Gabriel looked dismayed.</p><p>“No no, I’m just changing hands, see?” she explained as she tried to make the divine light construct on her withdrawn hand. She was flustered and it didn’t work. She tried again. It still did not.</p><p>“Elves can also see in the dark,” she declared, dismissing the ball on the nearer hand and reaching out to him. He let her lace her fingers through his again.</p><p>“Umm…”</p><p>In reality she couldn’t see his facial expression at all. That was concerning. She still wasn’t sure if he’d been sincere.</p><p>“I’ll get the lamps maybe?” he offered.</p><p>“Yes, yes, that’s a good idea.”</p><p>She was sure he could feel her fingers linger longingly on his as he moved his hand and got up. She sighed softly. The way this was going, it was probably not possible to recover from this with dignity and the kind of distance between themselves she’d deemed it wise to maintain. Or maybe she was being silly. All they’d done was hold hands, for all of twenty seconds in total. That didn’t have to mean anything. People probably held hands all the time, for all sorts of reasons. She didn’t have to be such a blushing virgin about it -- that was doing Avei a disservice. Gabriel had significantly more experience than her in matters of physical intimacy and he likely did not feel the same way. Not to mention, all this started when she patted his hand, as a joke. Maybe it was still just a joke.</p><p>The lamps came on from somewhere behind her, and she heard Gabriel walk back towards the sofa from that direction. Then she felt his hand on her head. It felt like he was going for a pat, but then he changed to ruffling her hair lightly. It was <em>so nice</em>.</p><p>He came around and back of the sofa and sat down more primly in his previous position. She’d turned her body more towards him, except, unfortunately, she’d also managed to clasp her hands together on her lap while she was thinking. She tried to maintain a neutral expression. He looked sincere, but confused, when he met her eyes.</p><p>“I have no idea what I’m doing,” he confessed.</p><p>“Umm…” She took one hand from her lap and placed it on the sofa between them. Then she moved it back immediately -- it had actually been a natural shifting of position, not a “please hold my hand again” gesture, but it must have looked like that in the moment, which made her withdraw. Actually, she didn’t mind making a “please hold my hand again” gesture, but it was too late now. He noticed, and frowned.</p><p>“Sorry,” he said helplessly.</p><p>“It’s…uh, well, you haven’t done anything wrong.”</p><p>“Do you wanna hold hands again? Or uh, talk, or something? I mean, if you want to. You don’t have to, of course. I just thought-- Maybe, you know, you’d like to…”</p><p>She reached out fully and grasped his hand this time. Then she moved closer. He eyed her warily, and she noticed him looking particularly at her armour. Oh, right, she was wearing armour. That was inconvenient. She didn’t know what it was inconvenient for, and that was a scary thought.</p><p>“Triss, I haven’t figured out how I feel about… I know we heard the thing. With Scyllith. But she was obviously manipulating us. And it’s all very scary, honestly. I don’t wanna mess anything up between us--”</p><p>“Scyllith didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. About me, at least. But we don’t have to talk about that,” Trissiny said, not meeting his eyes.</p><p>“Why?” he asked simply.</p><p>“Toby told me to talk this out with you as well,” she sighed. “I have to say the same thing I told him. A paladin’s life is sacrifice. We don’t have the time or luxury for companionship, or other distractions.”</p><p>“Oh come on, you know that’s not true. Didn’t your predecessor have a daughter? You told us just this morning that six Hands of Avei married that gold dragon.”</p><p>“Ampophrenon is a <em>dragon</em>.”</p><p>“I’m a little insulted.”</p><p>“Okay, sorry,” Trissiny let herself smile. “But these are likely exceptional times, even for Hands of Avei. There is that thing we keep hearing about the great doom.”</p><p>“Okay, point taken. I guess…I shouldn’t try too hard to convince you of something that works out in my favour. It doesn’t seem very impartial, does it?”</p><p>“Does it really work out in your favour though?”</p><p>“Trissiny…” He looked genuinely shocked. “You’re among the most amazing people I’ve ever met. And <em>I</em> rank among the bottom tier of people I’ve ever met. Honestly, I don’t know why you’d even…”</p><p>Trissiny felt her cheeks redden. But it was also kind of sad. She reached out with her other hand to pat his hair. It was such a strange gesture, but it felt nice when he did it, so it was worth a shot. She then slid her hand down and cradled his face with it, stroking his eyebrow. He had nice arched eyebrows. He was also blushing.</p><p>“Honestly, you’re sending all kinds of mixed signals.”</p><p>“<em>Really?</em> Do you sit and talk about your feelings with every girl you bed?”</p><p>“No,” he frowned, but blushed even deeper. “But that’s different. You’re one of my best friends, and…well, Juniper’s my friend too. No, it’s still different. I guess I’ve always felt…we could be closer, you know? I <em>like</em> you.”</p><p>Trissiny felt giddy, and a little short of breath. Her hand was unsteady on his face, and he could surely feel it. Well, there was only one thing to do now.</p><p>She closed the distance between them, and caught his lips on hers. His lips were warm and soft, but also cracked in places. His mouth smelled faintly of things she remembered from dinner, and the rest of him had a complicated smell that was probably just <em>him</em>. He kissed her back almost desperately, and moved his free hand onto her back and pulled her even closer. Even through the layers of metal and leather in her armour, she revelled in it.</p><p>Then he suddenly pulled back.</p><p>“Wait, is the door locked?”</p><p>“We have our backs to the door,” she laughed. “But yes, I had the same thought as you while coming in. I locked it then.”</p><p>“You…expected this, while coming in?” he looked amused.</p><p>“No. But, you know, <em>Sherwin</em>.”</p><p>They both laughed at that, and their noses touched. Gabriel had such a pretty nose. Actually, his whole face was so pretty, come to think of it. He had long eyelashes and bright, black eyes that looked really happy at the moment. The voice at the back of her head reminding her that she had objected to things along these lines just a moment ago. Did it all change because he said he liked her? That was probably stupid, but she couldn’t bring herself to care, looking at his face.</p><p>“Honestly, I never thought I’d see you with such a dopey expression,” he commented.</p><p>“You look dopey too. Although I can’t say I felt the same way.”</p><p>She put both her arms around his neck and kissed his forehead, his nose. He let out an oddly high-pitched giggle at the last gesture; it was <em>adorable</em>. Then she found his lips again. This time, neither of them pulled back for a long time.</p><p>Eventually, though, she realized her armour was really getting in the way. “I’m going to, uh, take this off,” she said slowly, when they paused for breath.</p><p>“Aww, really? I did tell you I liked costumes,” he said with a toothy grin.</p><p>“Avei’s always watching and she <em>will</em> smite you.”</p><p>She got up and started unfastening her cuirass. It was a bit of a hassle -- taking her armour off generally took several minutes. She was aware people generally took their clothes off as hastily as possible, during moments of intimacy. But this was the Hand of Avei’s armour -- it wasn’t <em>possible</em> to hasten the process, and it deserved respect. She noticed Gabriel looking at her as she slipped the cuirass over her head. He had a faint smile and something almost like hunger in his expression. She felt the pit of her stomach tighten at that.</p><p>“Sorry, can I look? I don’t wanna creep you out…” he said, when he noticed her noticing.</p><p>She leaned down and gave him a small kiss and a smile. “I don’t mind.”</p><p>“I can’t believe I’m making out with the Hand of Avei and she just said that.”</p><p>She laughed as she placed the cuirass carefully on the ground and proceeded to take off the vambraces. “You <em>are</em> the Hand of Vidius.”</p><p>“Yeah but that’s just a made up thing,” he said with a wave of his hand. “It’s not like I stand for anything.”</p><p>“Vidius is also watching and he will also smite you.”</p><p>“Nah, he picked someone specifically to screw around. That’s exactly what I’m doing right now! See?” he leaned back on the sofa, smile broadening, and she saw the hunger again. “You look <em>really</em> nice doing that.”</p><p>She did hasten the removal process after that, and propped down with both her feet on the sofa, when she was down to just her tunic.</p><p>“You know what you’re doing, right?” she ventured, uncertainly.</p><p>“I just told you that I don’t.”</p><p>“No, I mean…<em>mechanically</em>.”</p><p>“Oh,” he looked a little embarrassed. “What exactly do you plan to--”</p><p>“I don’t know! Okay, forget what I asked.”</p><p>He ruffled her hair again and smiled. “If it helps, I’m as scared shitless as you are.”</p><p>“It’s not the same!” Trissiny protested. “You <em>do</em> know what you’re doing, and you’ve got this look on your face.”</p><p>Gabriel’s expression sobered. “Yes, thank you for pointing out what a horndog I am,” he grumbled. “We all knew that. I <em>told</em> you to point out if I did anything creepy. Is this gonna set Avei on my case?”</p><p>“It’s not creepy. Kind of intimidating, but...”</p><p>“I mean, you’re <em>really</em> attractive. And you look even more attractive when you’re doing… <em>That</em> stuff. Most things, really. And I kind of want to see you naked at some point, if that’s okay with you. I have been, for a while now, though I tried not to think about it. There, I said it,” he threw his hands up in the air.</p><p>“I kind of want to see you naked too,” she said, and realized it was true as she was saying it. She placed a hand on his thigh and leaned in, “And I kind of want you to want to see me naked.”</p><p>“Aww, you know exactly what to say. C’mere,” smile returning, he pulled her onto himself.</p><p>It was an awkward embrace; she had to steady herself by holding on to his shoulders and folding her legs on either side of him, so she was effectively sitting on his lap. She was very aware that her tunic rode up her thighs because of this. And she didn’t wear pants as part of her armour. He didn’t kiss her this time, but she could feel the warmth of his breath on her neck -- slightly ticklish, but in a pleasant way. His hands were wrapped around her waist and over her back, tantalizingly close to her skin through just the fabric of her tunic now.</p><p>He placed a soft kiss on her neck, and continued down her neck and shoulder with a line of kisses. When he came up against the collar of her tunic, he pulled it aside with his hand, to reveal more of her shoulder.</p><p>“Is this okay?” he asked between kisses on her newly exposed skin.</p><p>“Mm, but you’re tickling me. A bit.”</p><p>“Is that bad?”</p><p>“No, go on. It’s good,” she said, gently threading her fingers through his hair, feeling the need to reciprocate. Was that really enough? But it was <em>embarrassing</em> to do more.</p><p>“You’ve got goosebumps on your shoulder. It’s so cute,” Gabriel observed. <em>Why</em> did he have to embarrass her further?</p><p>She did say she wanted to see him naked, so she could make him take off some clothes, she decided. It wasn’t even like removing his coat was going to reveal anything. Although they were both sitting on it, which made it tricky.</p><p>She slid her hands down his neck and onto his back, between his shirt and coat, as he switched to kissing her other shoulder. Sliding her arms in further pushed the collar of his coat out as far as it would go, given that they were sitting on the lower part.</p><p>“Do you want me to take it off?” he asked.</p><p>“Mm...yes?”</p><p>“Okay. Hang on tight!”</p><p>“What’re you-- Hey!”</p><p>He’d rapidly gotten up and carried her up with him, hanging on to his neck. She had the reflexes to wrap her legs around him -- going under the swishing hem of his coat -- or she would have fallen down. He quickly shrugged off his coat and sat back down, again not really giving her enough notice to get her legs back around to his sides, but she managed to do it anyway.</p><p>“Not that you’re heavy or anything, but if you have preferences about positions, I gotta tell you -- I can’t actually maintain that for long.”</p><p>“Excuse me?” Trissiny snorted. “That was <em>me</em>. Holding on with <em>my</em> strength. You would’ve dropped me.”</p><p>“Fine, fine. Honestly, I’m kind of embarrassed by your muscles.”</p><p>“That coat’s got your scythe in it. And you just threw it on the ground.”</p><p>“Eh,” he waved a hand. “There’s a carpet. We’ve got more important things to do.”</p><p>“Okay,” she said, and bit her lip, preparing to take things a bit further. She started working on the buttons of his shirt, and placed kisses on his chest as she went along. “Heh. Looks like I’m not the only one getting goosebumps. And you’re not even the rookie.”</p><p>“Omnu’s breath, stop making me sound like some kind of sex tycoon!” he exclaimed.</p><p>She giggled at that, but continued with what she was doing. “That describes the brothel owner more than the workers, honestly,” she remarked between kisses.</p><p>She was also taking the opportunity to appraise his bare chest. Her very first impression of him had been that he was scrawny, but he’d likely put on a bit of muscle since then. His skin was smooth and tight and he had the faintest definition of abs. And it was great to touch, with her hands and mouth both. He even let out a gasp when she kissed his nipple. So, that was <em>sensitive</em>, was it?</p><p>Gabriel had decided to take things a bit further himself, meanwhile. She jerked as she felt his hands on the bare skin of her thighs. It was such a gentle touch -- he was caressing her skin, but it sent a tingle down her spine. He’d noticed her reaction.</p><p>“Is this okay?” he asked.</p><p>“Mm,” she tried to reply, and it came out half a moan. He was eventually gonna go up her thighs, she realized with excitement and trepidation. She felt the tightening in the pit of her stomach again.</p><p>She was done unbuttoning his shirt and untucking it from his pants by now. It hung loosely over his arms, ready to take off at his convenience. He had almost no chest hair, but there was a faint line of hair starting below his navel going down into his pants. It was barely visible against his dark skin, but for some reason, it was <em>extremely</em> attractive. It was difficult to reach though, the way they were sitting.</p><p>“Hey, I need more access,” she said.</p><p>“How do you mean?”</p><p>“Can you lie down? There’s space on the sofa.”</p><p>“Where do you want access to?” he asked with a quirk of his lips.</p><p>“You have this line of hair down from your navel,” she reluctantly replied.</p><p>“Uh-huh?”</p><p>“It’s uh, shiny.”</p><p>“What?!”</p><p>“Fine, it’s <em>hot</em>.”</p><p>“And?” his smile looked positively wicked now.</p><p>“I want to kiss it,” she admitted.</p><p>He kissed her on the mouth, at that. She felt his tongue inside her mouth, this time, and let out a moan. But he cut off way too soon.</p><p>“Someday I’m gonna make you say all the things you wanna do to me, like that,” he said, looking delighted. “But today’s not the day.”</p><p>He quickly shrugged off his shirt, and lay down like she asked, moving sideways on the sofa. So she was straddling him now, and had all the access she wanted. He moaned when she got down to kissing his lower stomach, the sound deepening with her going down further. She’d reached all the way down to where his pants started when she realized something was different. Oh. <em>Oh.</em> He had an erection. Well, obviously he had an erection, she should have realized it earlier. And she was sort of touching it. That was the sort of thing you explicitly asked consent for, she realized and felt a pang of guilt. But it had been an accident!</p><p>He noticed her peering inquisitively at him up the length of his torso when he shrugged. “Touch whatever you want. And meanwhile,” he gestured down at her own body, where he’d slowly managed to push her tunic up the entire length of her thigh. “Can I?”</p><p>She nodded and straightened up, and he pulled her tunic off over her head. She didn’t feel the need to wear a brassiere, so she was just sitting on him in her underpants now, the full length of her torso exposed. And he was staring at her naked torso. Again he had that look of hunger -- oh, she might as well admit it, arousal. He looked <em>very</em> aroused.</p><p>He slowly moved his hands from her thighs along the side of her body, up her hips and waist. Her heart thumped in her chest and she squirmed her legs closer to him. When he reached the height of her breasts, he moved his hands over to them, lightly squeezing and circling over her nipples. That felt <em>so, so</em> good. The sensation pulsed out from where his fingers touched, being reinforced by the one from the pit of her stomach. She’d been grinding on him, she realized, without having registered it consciously. Specifically, on the lump in his pants.</p><p>“Hey, Gabe?”</p><p>“Hmm?” he looked up at her.</p><p>“Since you’re doing that… I can’t help but remember what Juno mentioned once about you and breasts.”</p><p>He stopped what he was doing with his hands immediately. “Really? <em>Really?</em> That was over two years ago!” he exclaimed, as he scooted up into a sitting position. “I’ve gotten better! I would like to go back to being treated like a sex tycoon, please.”</p><p>He brought his mouth down onto her right breast and sucked on her nipple lightly, making Trissiny tilt her head back and moan from the back of her throat. She had to hold on to him for support as he continued -- he sucked harder, used some teeth even. She was surprised to find herself enjoying the slight pain it caused. Not that she had seriously meant the insinuation; quite the opposite, in fact. She felt her fingernails dig into his shoulder where she held him, from the intensity of it. Or they would have, except his skin didn’t budge.</p><p>“Do you have a thing for scratching?” he asked from between her breasts. “Because I don’t think it’ll work. I mean, Juniper could do it, but that’s because of, you know…”</p><p>“What? No, it was just...intense,” she said, gathering her bearings. “You know, you should really stop bringing up your other lovers all the time.”</p><p>“You were the one who brought it up,” he brought his head up to her level and grinned. “And <em>she</em> didn’t mind if I did. Or me, for that matter.”</p><p>“That’s different.”</p><p>“Is it?” he raised an eyebrow.</p><p>“You said so.”</p><p>“You were the one who said you don’t want to do the whole...<em>thing</em>.”</p><p>“Yes, but…” she hummed. “You said you’re gonna make me do those...things, someday, implying this isn’t a one-off act.”</p><p>“That doesn’t imply…” he paused, reconsidering. “You really wanna talk about this <em>now</em>?”</p><p>“Sorry,” she murmured, looking down. She felt silly. “I have no idea what I’m doing either.”</p><p>“I think I like you enough to go along with whatever you want,” he said, holding her chin up and giving her a little peck on the lips. “Now can I get back to your breasts please? I was really enjoying them.”</p><p>“Okay,” she assented, smiling, and he got down to her left breast. She closed her eyes and let herself enjoy his efforts, holding on to him. Her underpants were getting wet, she realized.</p><p>“There <em>are</em> bedrooms in this suite, you know,” Gabriel commented from between her breasts again. “It would be more comfortable than this tiny sofa.”</p><p>“You want us to get naked on Ravana’s guest bed?”</p><p>“We’re getting naked on Ravana’s guest sofa,” he pointed out. “Don’t worry, we’re not grosser than Sherwin.”</p><p>“But we’ll have to get up and stop touching, while we walk there,” Trissiny complained.</p><p>He giggled at that. “Do you want to be carried again? I could probably manage the walk.”</p><p>“Or I’ll carry you,” she grinned mischievously.</p><p>She promptly got up and scooped him up in her arms. She really wasn’t as strong as she could be, given how hard it was for her to put on muscle, but this she could easily do, with him holding on to her neck.</p><p>“Oh, you spoil me so,” he said with a broad smile, and reached up from her arms to kiss her cheek. “And hang on, I’ve got this contraceptive I got from Rafe in my pocket. I’ll just get it.”</p><p>“You carry that around in your pocket all the time?” she raised an eyebrow, but squatted down so he could reach his coat on the ground.</p><p>“As any sensible person would. They’re deep pockets,” he said, taking a pill out and swallowing it.</p><p>Once that was done, she picked one of the bedroom doors at random and turned on the lamps on the way in. The room looked about as luxurious as any other in the manor, with a huge bed in the centre that had a frankly ridiculous number of pillows. Also, there was an unusually large number of mirrors all around, which she suspected were for debauchery purposes. She sighed and dumped Gabriel on the bed upon reaching it.</p><p>“Hey! That wasn’t spoiling at all!” He exclaimed. “But I’m okay, the bed is stupidly soft.”</p><p>“Hmph, nobles and their frivolities,” she scoffed, and sat down neatly on the edge of the bed, her legs going over the side.</p><p>“I agree, soft beds are terrible for having sex on. You get leg cramps,” he said, getting up to sit beside her. “Okay, I won’t dawdle here though. Something else I wanna do.”</p><p>He got up from the bed entirely and sat down on his knees on the ground in front of her. “Spread your legs,” he instructed from there.</p><p>“You asked for everything else,” she complained.</p><p>“Okay, if you would please spread your legs, I would like to take your pants off and pleasure your lady parts. Can I do that?”</p><p>She blushed slightly, but assented. Her underpants came off, and it was done excruciatingly slowly on his part. He no doubt thought this was some seduction technique or other, as she was rigid with anticipation. He moved his hands up her thighs, gently stroking them, until he settled them around her rump. All the while he was staring intently at her down there, and it made her blush deeper.</p><p>She shuddered bodily when he touched her clitoris, presumably, with his tongue. It was <em>really</em> sensitive, and the feeling was intense like nothing before, heady and warm and tingly. She happened to be sitting in front of one of the room’s many full-length mirrors -- not that it was easy to avoid the strategically placed mirrors from anywhere in the room -- and saw her expression in it. It was...well, maybe someday she could learn to appreciate what her face looked like at the height of pleasure, but it was too embarrassing for now. She could see Gabriel in the mirror too, and decided to focus on the taut muscles on his back as he moved about on her clitoris. She wanted to see his rump too, but he was wearing pants, and she was far too distracted to attempt to remove them. That was annoying.</p><p>Then he put a finger in her, and she realized how much she wanted <em>something</em> in there this whole time. She was sufficiently wet that it didn’t hurt at all like she might have expected, but it felt <em>so right</em>.</p><p>“Is this any good? Is it working?” she heard his muffled voice from between her legs.</p><p>“Mm, keep going. Do the second thing you did with your tongue. And have you got more fingers?”</p><p>“That’s what I like to hear,” he said cheerfully, and went back in.</p><p>He really ramped it up this time. He did put two fingers in, as instructed, but his movements on her clit also escalated slowly, now that he wasn't trying different things. The heat rising up from deep within her was making her stomach muscles tighten and her back arch. It eventually spread to her whole body, and it felt like she was losing control of it. She squirmed and moaned, her rump moving in Gabriel’s hands. She grabbed on to his hair, because it felt like she needed something to anchor her down to earth. But she kept going up, up… Until her whole body contracted, and there was only bliss for a few seconds. She came up gasping for breath, when it faded, and realized she was covered with beads of sweat, even though it hadn’t been warm at all. Her heart must have been beating twice as fast.</p><p>“Lemme go, if you’re done,” she heard his voice again. She realized she’d been clutching him tightly to herself, and had wrapped her legs around him to boot.</p><p><em>This man had just made her experience one of the best things ever, and she was obviously in love with him.</em> It was alarming how quickly the thought came into her head. But no, it must have been an afterglow effect, it made people think all sorts of foolish things. She would have to reconsider her feelings later with her mental faculties intact.</p><p>“Thanks,” she said, releasing him. “That...that was actually great. Also, take off your pants.”</p><p>“You didn’t even ask once,” he pointed out as he stood up.</p><p>“Sorry, I’m...wow, still a bit shaken. Please take off your pants? I want to see your butt.”</p><p>He grinned at that. “Yeah, plenty to see.”</p><p>He unbuckled his belt and pulled his pants and underpants down at the same time. He didn’t turn around to show her his butt, but she stared at his frontal side regardless.</p><p>“Yes, that’s what a penis looks like, Triss. Stop staring,” he said after a few seconds of this, with a hint of a blush.</p><p>“You’ve been staring at me the <em>whole time</em>,” she retorted.</p><p>“Yeah, but you’re staring in wonder and amazement.”</p><p>“Well, one has to wonder how it stays up like that. It’s amazing, really.”</p><p>He dismissively waved a hand and crawled on to the bed. “Come on, let’s use the more comfortable parts of this thing,” he gestured at her.</p><p>She scooted up and chose to lie down with her head on one of the pillows; she was still a bit breathless. He balanced on his knees near her -- this was harder than it sounded, especially with his level of coordination, given how soft the bed was.</p><p>“So,” he began. “Do you wanna… ?”</p><p>“Do I wanna what?”</p><p>“Engage in the magnum opus of heterosexual coupling?”</p><p>“I don’t know what that word means, and I doubt you know what it means either.”</p><p>“Oh, you know what I mean,” he said, leaning down and looking at her intently in the eyes.</p><p>“Sorry, what?” she blinked, innocently. “I got distracted looking at your butt in the mirror just behind.”</p><p>“You can look at it just fine while we’re doing it.”</p><p>“I can? But of course, then!” she smiled sweetly at him.</p><p>He moved back to position himself between her outstretched legs, and held them for support. She felt a little worried, looking his way, he was a lot thicker than two fingers.</p><p>“Tell me if it hurts, okay?” he said reassuringly. She nodded, wary. “No, seriously, tell me if it hurts. I can’t tell if there’s painful friction. It’s an invulnerability thing.” She had to gulp at that.</p><p>When he went in, it <em>did</em> hurt. But he was slow and careful and it wasn’t a bad pain. As before, she wanted something in there, and she was still wet. Her stomach started to tense again, warmth rising, when he began to move. It was different from when he did it with his hands and mouth, less <em>directed</em>, but also more intimate, because she could look at his face.</p><p>He grunted softly as he thrusted, and his face had a look very similar to what she’d seen on herself in the mirror. Except it wasn’t embarrassing looking at <em>him</em> like that, it made her more aroused. She wrapped her legs around his and pulled him closer. She was altogether very passive in this position, but she realized she could participate in the thrusting by pulling on him slightly with her legs. And it was working, she recognized the feeling rising in her whole body…</p><p>… And then it went back down. Because she had a fucking leg cramp. Because she couldn't balance her legs properly on the stupid bed. She managed to preserve some dignity by not crying out, because even though it didn’t all that bad, it certainly was a sudden and proper distraction. Her face had settled into a grimace though, and Gabriel noticed.</p><p>“What happened?” he asked, concerned.</p><p>“Leg cramp,” she replied. “It’s not that bad, just distracting. You carry on.”</p><p>“It’s all because of the soft bed. Fucking told you!” he looked unhappy. “Did it, ah, ruin your process?”</p><p>Trissiny didn’t think she had another big well of feeling in her. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but it felt like it. And she was okay with that. This felt great, even without climaxing. She smiled and reached a hand out to caress his face. “No, it’s fine. You do your thing, I’ll watch.”</p><p>He reluctantly concentrated on thrusting again. In truth she felt a little bad for messing it up for him too, but it looked like he was getting his rhythm back. He looked <em>very</em> nice doing it. His body glistened with sweat, from the strands of his hair, to his shoulder muscles, his abs, the line of hair down from his navel to where he became one with her. She grabbed and squeezed his buttocks, and this made him emit a low growl from his throat that made her squirm again. Her insides tightened around him, and this elicited a gasp. He was getting close, she could tell, from the way the sounds he was making changed. She wanted to help in whatever way she could, so she ran her hands over all parts of him she could reach. His shoulders, biceps, chest -- even at the height of feeling he gasped when she stroked his nipples; they really <em>were</em> sensitive. In the end, his eyes rolled over, and he cried out in release; she felt the warmth of it inside her too. It was delightful.</p><p>He huffed and panted, smiling at her, when he’d regained his composure. Then he took her hand from his body and brought it to his mouth, kissing the back of it. He then proceeded to nibble on her fingers. It was weirdly and unfairly arousing. <em>Why now?</em> And after he was done with all that, he leaned down, bringing her arm with him and pinning it over her head on the pillow -- or they both pretended that he did, because he didn’t actually have the strength to hold her down.</p><p>He kissed her, more deeply than ever before, smoothly sliding his tongue in her mouth from the get-go. She didn’t know if it was the afterglow effects in her brain, but it felt like he was <em>saying</em> things to her, through the kiss, thanking her and telling her he appreciated her, for everything. <em>She loved him so much</em>. No. No! She tried to chase away the bad thought again.</p><p>“I guess you need to go clean up?” he whispered near her ear, breaking away from the kiss.</p><p>“Y-yeah,” she replied, gently extracting herself from under him.</p><p>Her trip to the bathroom was in a daze. She’d just had sex with Gabriel Arquin. <em>She’d just had sex with Gabriel Arquin</em>. Part of her brain said this was stupid and Gabe was her friend and class idiot and given how extremely awkward he was with women, this was nothing to be proud of. Another part of her said he was extremely important and she’d liked him for a long time, so boohoo to the first part. The third part was thinking about how great the sex had been.</p><p>She was done with her business there and back in the bedroom in no time, to find Gabriel spreadeagled on the bed. He scooted sideways to make room for her -- a pointless gesture, there was more than enough room on the bed for the both of them, but it made her smile.</p><p>“Have you decided if you’re a clingy cuddler yet?” he asked immediately when she got on beside him. “For the record, I fully support clingy cuddling. Makes it so much easier to go in for a second round.”</p><p>“There’s going to be a second round?” she asked, incredulous.</p><p>“You tell me. You’re the one who got interrupted. I’m always up for a second round, because like I said, you’re <em>really hot</em>.”</p><p>“It’s really not such a big deal as that.”</p><p>“Aww.” he pouted. “I was hoping it was good enough that you’d want to go for a second round. And other occasions after that.”</p><p>“Well, I don’t really have a point of comparison, do I?” she said, propping herself up on her elbows. “Maybe I should get points of comparison, ones that don’t involve invulnerability-related friction hazard.”</p><p>“Hey, don’t hold that against me! It’s not like I can turn it off,” he complained.</p><p>“You could’ve informed me beforehand.”</p><p>“It’s a small leap from knowing I’m invulnerable. Besides, nothing’s ever come of it. Apparently, I have a knack for sleeping with durable women.”</p><p>“That’s a happy accident, which may not hold for long. You should really test the limits of your invulnerability, see what kinds of danger it can pose to people in close physical contact, before you engage in close physical contact of any kind again.”</p><p>“Seriously?” he sat up and threw his arms up in the air. “Sherwin Leduc gets to have an orgy, and I can’t even get the one girl I like to have sex with me.<em>I</em> never locked anyone up for sex. There is no justice in this world!”</p><p>“Gabriel,” Trissiny stared evenly at him. “Please list all the ways in which what you just said is problematic.”</p><p>“Fine,” he grumbled. “Reason number one: you’re mad at me.”</p><p>“That’s not a good reason. It’s not even in the top five.”</p><p>“It kind of is, though,” he was earnest now. “I depend on you to get a lot of things right.”</p><p>She was caught off-guard. “I-- Well, I depend on you to get stuff right too.”</p><p>He smiled and put his arms around her propped up torso, resting his head on a place just below her breasts. “I have no idea how that’s true, but it’s great to hear it,” he confessed.</p><p>She found this adorable. Surely there was something wrong with her because he’d just said something really stupid before. She sighed, and stroked his hair. It was hopeless.</p><p>“For the record, this is clingy cuddling,” he helpfully supplied.</p><p>“I’m aware,” she said, and slumped back down on the bed with him. His arm was caught under her, but it wasn’t like he was going to be crushed by her weight.</p><p>“So we’re going for second helpings?” he asked eagerly.</p><p>“Let’s cuddle for a bit first. You’re being cute.”</p><p>He snorted in disbelief at that. “And <em>then</em> we go for it?”</p><p>“M-hm.”</p><p>“And we do it more times after that? I can bring you flowers. Or loot, and the skulls of your fallen enemies or something, if you wanna go adventuring together…” he trailed off.</p><p>Trissiny smiled, “We’ll see.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So things have happened in the story since I posted the first chapter, and this is obviously not canon-compliant anymore. I've tried to make the second chapter canon-compliant for things not involving Trissiny and Gabriel. Unfortunately, this chapter goes into the next day, and at the time of this posting, we don't know what happens to their plans for the next day in canon. So I've assumed that everything goes *sniggers* perfectly according to plan and not mentioned it much. It's weird, but it's the best I can do without making it seem like everything revolves around their love life.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Trissiny was watching Gabriel sleep. She couldn’t make up her mind on whether this was erotic or not. On one hand, he was naked, which was great and she wanted to touch him, but on the other, he looked very peaceful and she didn’t want to disturb him. Not that they had established protocols for whether it was okay to touch the other person sleeping anyway, so that was definitely out of the question. It <em> was </em> tempting though.</p><p>She’d been awake for twenty minutes. They had stayed awake quite late, but she woke up at daybreak by force of habit anyway. She’d gone and washed herself in the bathroom and put on her tunic afterwards. She’d gone to sleep naked, and it wasn’t like Gabriel hadn’t gotten enough of a look at her naked last night, but it felt appropriate. Then she proceeded to sit down next to him, with her back against the bed frame, and watch him sleep. She would have to wake him up soon enough, however. They did have something major lined up for later today, and there was also the issue that she had no idea how often the servants cleaned this room. It would be awfully embarrassing to have servants walk in on them.</p><p>“Hey, Gabe,” she whispered in his ear, deciding it was time.</p><p>She gingerly patted his shoulder as well, but it was probably <em> too </em> gentle. She had to try a few more times before he stirred.</p><p>“Mrrr,” he produced a surprisingly cat-like sound, rubbing his eyes. It was <em> unfair </em> how adorable that was.</p><p>“Wake up, we have stuff to do,” she said, breaking into a smile.</p><p>“It’s too early. Stop being a slave-driver like Tellwyrn,” he blearily complained.</p><p>“If it were up to me, I’d make you wake up earlier than Tellwyrn does.”</p><p>“Mrgh, what time is it even?”</p><p>“It’s a little past six. We still have a couple of hours before we need to start preparing for today, but we need to find our way back.”</p><p>He groaned and opened his eyes, at that, looking at her face and down to her body. “You’re wearing clothes. Please don’t tell me this means we didn’t have sex,” he said, blinking.</p><p>“I’m not wearing underwear yet, if that helps,” Trissiny supplied.</p><p>“<em>Really? </em>” he said, eyes widening immediately. He moved to touch her thigh lightly with the back of his hand.</p><p>“Gabe,” she said, trying to keep  from her voice the excitement, which she appeared to still feel from this, even after last night. “I’m <em> sore</em>.”</p><p>“Oh,” he said, looking disappointed. He moved his hand away and got up unsteadily into what could only be very generously described as a sitting position, next to her. But then he appeared to decide this was too much waking up, and slumped his head down on her shoulder, closing his eyes again. “I’m sorry. Maybe we shouldn’t have done it twice. But can’t you heal that using your light?”</p><p>“I can, but…” she hummed. “I don’t know what exact effect it will have, actually. Does it make everything go back to exactly the way it was before? There’s a good feeling in it too, you know? I can feel that I <em> did it</em>. I don’t want that to go away,” she finished, embarrassed.</p><p>“Ah, so you you want to feel like a sex tycoon,” his lips quirked.</p><p>“Gabriel! I have said it before, do not make sound like a brothel owner.”</p><p>“It doesn’t have to mean that,” he said, feeling around for her hand blindly with his own. “We know what it means. People who are, uh...you know,” he paused significantly when he found her hand, “Are supposed to have private phrases and stuff like that.”</p><p>“I don’t think you’re even using it consistently,” she complained. “And you want <em> this </em>to be our private phrase?”</p><p>“I’ll listen to your complaints when you manage to come up with something half as cool as an alternative.”</p><p>She huffed, brushed off his hand and started to make her way out of bed on her knees. Gabriel reacted much more quickly to this than she would have expected, given his displayed sleepiness. She felt his arms wrap around her torso and his body press against hers from behind. He’d also gotten up on his knees.</p><p>“Can we stay a bit longer?” he whispered, breath against her neck. “I don’t feel confident all of this will stay the way it is when we leave this suite.”</p><p>“What do you mean?” she asked, frowning.</p><p>He burrowed his head into her shoulder and took his time before answering. “It doesn’t feel real, you know?I can only get so lucky and have so many things I don’t deserve happen to me.”</p><p>“Oh,” she said, unsure how to react. It wasn’t something she liked hearing him say. But it seemed like he was being more open with her since last night, and she would have to handle it.</p><p>“I don’t understand why you feel that way,” she started, and felt him sliding his hands down the side of her body, tracing the outline of her waist. “Hey! I’m trying to have a conversation with you. And you’re distracting me!”</p><p>“It’s not important,” he mumbled, continuing to work his hands. “What parts are you sore at, exactly?”</p><p>“It <em> is </em> important!” she insisted. “But uh, what you’re doing now is fine. The genital area, ah, not so much...mmh,” she moaned as he reached under the back of her tunic and squeezed her butt.</p><p>She felt the familiar heat rise inside her caressed her cheeks and moved on to tracing his way back up her body, along her back and directly on her skin this time. He nibbled on her neck as he traced a finger up her spine, where she felt a distinct shiver. Her tunic had risen up to her waist now, due to him putting his entire forearm underneath it, with his efforts. So much for that being kept on.</p><p>“As I was saying,” she managed to say between heavy breaths, “You’re a great person and I like you.”</p><p>He didn’t answer immediately, but moved nibbling and kissing her neck, till he reached her ear. “I appreciate the effort,” he whispered, with a kiss on her earlobe. He sounded vaguely bemused.</p><p>“I mean it. You’ve been great at all the things you’re counting as lucky breaks, Gabe. And that includes this, by the way,” she said, breaking into a smile at the last part.</p><p>She noticed him looking at her expression through the side of her eye, and his eyes lit up in a smile too, even though the rest of his face was still burrowed on the side of her neck. He moved his hands up to her arms and gestured for her to lift them up. She did, and the tunic came off over her head. The soreness seemed pretty inconvenient, in that moment.</p><p>“Whoa!” Gabriel’s eyes widened as a soft golden glow flared up about the two of them. “You’re...healing the soreness?”</p><p>“Mm-hm. I guess I’ll find out later if I remain a sex tycoon.”</p><p>“Hey, Triss?” he said, leaning over her shoulder to look her in the eye. “You know how divine light makes you feel all warm and nice? Have you ever wondered how that would feel during, you know…?”</p><p>“Gabe! That’s wildly inapp-- I mean to say, that’s not what it’s…” she started, then stopped. “Fine, I suppose I am wondering now.”</p><p>“Let’s find out,” he grinned, and she saw the arousal in his eyes. “You did say we’ve still got time.”</p>
<hr/><p>One of them did have the sense to suggest wrapping up this round of activities more promptly than the last two. To Trissiny’s later chagrin, it had been Gabriel and not her. She liked the quick and intense way things went as a result though, given that her soreness was no longer a problem. And she was very satisfied with the divine light experiment.</p><p>It turned out that they needn’t have been quick, however, since there was no difficulty in finding their way back to their assigned quarters at all. Within ten minutes of leaving the suite they were in, they chanced upon two servants, who offered to escort them the entire way. Well, chanced upon wasn’t quite the right way of putting it. The servants mysteriously appeared behind them and offered to show them the way without being told where they wanted to go. Did all the hundreds of servants in this manor know who they were? They had been quite far from their own suite too, as they realized along the way. Trissiny felt very suspicious of the whole situation.</p><p>The servants disappeared just as mysteriously when they reached the sitting room of the Sanhevid Suite. Two of their classmates were engaged in a conversation, sitting across from each other on two of the gilt armchairs. Juniper got up and walked towards them immediately when she noticed their presence.</p><p>“Oh, you guys!” she squealed as she came up to face them. She had a broad grin and was practically bobbing her head in excitement, in a manner oddly reminiscent of Fross. They <em> were </em> roommates, after all. “I’m so happy for you! You finally did it!”</p><p>“W-what are you talking about, June?” Trissiny said nervously.</p><p>“Trissiny, we’ve talked about this,” Juniper chided. “You know I can tell, right? I’ve known about you two for, oh, months now.”</p><p>Trissiny turned to glance at Gabriel, who looked a lot less uncomfortable than she felt. Then looked over Juniper’s shoulder at Shaeine, who was still seated primly where she had been, F’thaan on her lap.</p><p>“There is no need to be concerned that Juniper accidentally revealed private information to me,” she said in response to their glances. “I do not of course have Juniper’s gifts in these matters, but I <em> am </em> accustomed to reading much more subtle body language than the rest of you. Not that it was necessary in this case. Gabriel, you <em> are </em> looking at Trissiny as if you’re mentally undressing her.”</p><p>Trissiny disagreed with this privately -- he looked way more attractive when he did want her to take her clothes off. She dismissed the distracting thought about that and was going to clarify things and Gabriel decided to do it his own way.</p><p>“I resent that claim,” he said, looking offended. “I’ll have you know I helped her put her armour <em> on</em>.”</p><p>Juniper burst into laughter as Trissiny turned to stare at him flatly.</p><p>“What?” he said defensively. “You didn’t tell me we were supposed to deny it.”</p><p>“That’s because we didn’t have a chance to discuss that!” she retorted.</p><p>“I’m sure you would’ve brought it up if you thought it was important. Do I <em> seem </em> like the kind of guy who’d keep quiet about having sex by default?” he said, looking almost genuinely incredulous.</p><p>Trissiny threw her arms up in the air. Shaeine looked politely amused ahead of them.</p><p>“See, this is why it was obvious you two were gonna go at it,” Juniper said with a sagely smile.</p><p>“Because he’s an insufferable ass?” Trissiny asked, exasperated.</p><p>“No, because of all the bickering laced with sexual tension,” Juniper said. “Well, that and all your yearning and poorly repressed sexual thoughts. But I guess other people couldn’t sense those.”</p><p>“I have actually observed that Gabriel and Ruda tend to bicker more than Gabriel and Trissiny,” Shaeine commented.</p><p>“Oh, right,” Juniper said, resting a finger on her chin thoughtfully. “That doesn’t fail to support my point though. Back in freshman year, Gabe <em> did</em>--”</p><p>“No, no, stop!” Gabriel waved his arms frantically. “We don’t talk about freshman year anymore! Also, you were supposed to have stopped sharing inappropriate information since freshman year, June.”</p><p>He turned to look at Trissiny, but she already had her face in her hands by that point.</p><p>“<em>Please </em> don’t leak this to Ruda. She’s going to <em> make fun of me</em>,” she groaned.</p><p>“You need not worry about us leaking anything, Trissiny,” Shaeine reassured. “If you know anything about me, it is that I value privacy. As such, while I <em> will </em> share the news with Teal, because discussing social dynamics between friends and acquaintances with your spouse is important and an aspect of Narisian culture, I will not share it with anybody else without your express permission.”</p><p>“You want to gossip with Teal, you mean,” Gabriel commented. “Never took you to be the type, Shaeine.”</p><p>Trissiny looked up in time to see Shaeine smile with the faintest trace of slyness.</p><p>“That’s… Ahem, thank you, Shaeine. I would like to tell everyone on my terms,” she said.</p><p>“Okay, I won’t tell anyone either, I suppose,” Juniper said reluctantly. “But anyway!” she added more with cheer, “This is so exciting. Do tell us how it happened!”</p><p>“Terrible gossips, the lot of you,” Gabriel said, shaking his head. His tone of disapproval was entirely unconvincing.</p><p>“Ah, if you are going to be exchanging stories about sexual encounters, I’m afraid I must excuse myself. That is not something I would do even among family members. Besides, that ruins the fun of speculating about it with my spouse,” said Shaeine, getting up and ignoring the raised eyebrows of everyone else. “I’m happy for you both. May you have a happy and lasting relationship,” she bowed at Trissiny and Gabriel in particular and made off in the direction of the bedrooms. F’thaan followed after her obediently.</p><p>“It’s not, umm, strictly speaking, a…” Gabriel trailed off, then turned to Trissiny. “She was exaggerating about the mentally undressing part, right?”</p><p>“Oh, you look way different when doing that,” she and Juniper said in unison.</p><p>Trissiny <em> knew </em> she should have been prepared for this sort of thing. And she had nothing against Juniper, really. But she still wasn’t sure if the look she turned to give Juniper right then was entirely friendly.</p><p>“N-not that I have any recent experience in the matter,” Juniper smiled nervously. “You know what, I’ll maybe listen to the story later. Or never. I’ll get going now too,” she said, retreating in the same direction as Shaeine, with much less composure.</p><p>“I’m sorry about the last bit,” Gabriel said when they were alone. “But don’t take it out on June.”</p><p>Trissiny sighed. “I know, I know. That...just did not go as I expected.”</p><p>“How were you expecting it to go?” he inquired.</p><p>She took a moment to study his face. He looked...like he was afraid of disappointing her, maybe? He seemed entirely comfortable and gloating about the whole affair in front of those two, but like <em> this </em> when it was just them. Strange, wasn’t it? Maybe it had something to do with the Doctrine of Masks that he supposedly practiced.</p><p>“Hey, I’m sorry if you wanted me to...keep quiet about it,” he offered, seeing no reply from her. He was rubbing the back of his head apologetically. “It didn’t seem like you did, before. And I know, I know. I need to get over bad habits.”</p><p>“I <em> am </em> concerned about how Ruda’s going to make fun of me, so leave telling her to me. But you’re welcome to tell Toby, as I expect you want to.” She paused and smiled, “It’s not like I’m not excited about this myself, honestly.”</p><p>He put an arm around her waist -- or whatever could be felt of it, through her armour -- and pulled her in for a kiss immediately. She felt concerned for a moment whether Juniper or Shaeine would come back in, or somebody else would come in and see them, but dropped the thought soon enough. She was beginning to realize Gabriel was going to suddenly kiss her every time she said something he liked. It left her flustered and breathless and yearning for more each time. She could get used to it.</p><p>“Always nice to hear that,” he said with a lopsided grin, on breaking away. He brought both arms around her waist at the same time. <em> Now </em> he slightly looked like he was mentally undressing her.</p><p>“I can’t go <em> showing </em>that I’m excited in front of people though. That’s embarrassing.”</p><p>“The sheer hypocrisy!”</p><p>“Says the Vidian, of all people,” Trissiny snorted. “And for the record, you seemed pretty different in front of them too. Just in another way.”</p><p>“That’s not even a Vidian thing, Triss,” he said, rolling his eyes. “It’s a normal people thing. You’re not supposed to show your orgasm face to everyone.”</p><p>“Then why are you complaining about my hypocrisy?”</p><p>“Because, Triss, your public face is that of a prude. So <em> I </em> don’t get to tell people that I’m nailing your hot ass. Uh, sorry, I mean--”</p><p>“Honestly, between the two of us, yours is the hotter ass,” Trissiny cut him off, amused.</p><p>She was expecting another sudden kiss, but he just looked embarrassed. Oh well, it would take some time to figure out the right level of flattery.</p><p>“Anyway, the most surprising part of this is that Shaeine and Teal are speculating about our sex life,” he changed the subject. “What are they even talking about? It’s <em> Shaeine</em>.”</p><p>“They’re debating whether you’re a top or bottom, Gabe.”</p><p>“What’re you-- That’s not even--” he loosened his grip on her and moved back in shock. “What have the Eserites done to you?!”</p>
<hr/><p>Trissiny had been afraid of being caught as easily by Ruda as they had been by Juniper. Ruda supposedly didn’t have any special powers that allowed her to discern this, but she claimed people had a “morning-after glow” to them, upon having satisfying sex. Actually, she said there was an entirely different way you could tell that people had unsatisfying sex too. Sometimes Trissiny wondered if the part about her not having special powers was true.</p><p>But she didn’t have to face Ruda right then, as it turned out. She was probably with Shaeine and Teal already, helping them with Teal’s plan, by the time she got back to the bedrooms. Hopefully, by the time she saw Ruda again, she would have calmed down enough -- at least when it came to sexual feelings, they had very serious events planned for the day anyway. Although if it was <em> too </em> long before she saw Ruda again… How long would it be before she got to have sex again? She regretted not discussing this with Gabriel.</p><p>The person they did end up having their next awkward encounter with turned out to not be from their class. Trissiny, Gabriel and Toby, it was understood, were to meet in the grand hall of the outermost wing of the manor to leave for Tiraas. Toby would have reached there much earlier than he needed to, because he was Toby, and Trissiny was sure both she and Gabriel -- after a change of clothes and another round of washing up -- would barely make it in time. She hadn’t been sure if they were supposed to go there together -- another thing she should have asked Gabriel -- but she saw him there when she made it back to the sitting room anyway. So they set off together. Thankfully, this was a route through the manor but they took often enough that between the two of them, they could navigate.</p><p>They ran into Ravana and her retinue about midway there, in an intersection where corridors from several different wings of the manor likely met. She noticed them and came around the large fountain at the centre of the intersection to talk.</p><p>“Good morning, you two. I hope you enjoyed the party last night, and the arrangements made for post-party engagements afterwards,” Ravana said with a pleasant smile.</p><p>Trissiny had a sinking feeling in her stomach. Theoretically speaking, she knew the debauchery rooms were there for all guests, but the way Ravana phrased it made it sound like she had plans for them specifically. Trissiny did <em> not </em> want to be part of Ravana’s plans.</p><p>“I’m assuming of course,” Ravana continued. “Since I saw the two of you leave the party in the direction of the rooms I had prepared.”</p><p>“Oh,” Trissiny said, hoping that was all Ravana was basing her assertion on. “That wasn’t-- We were just trying to get back to our suite. We got lost.”</p><p>“Ah,” Ravana said, raising an eyebrow. “So you took off in the direction in which there weren’t very many guests to be seen, because the guests don’t want to embarrass other guests by witnessing who their partners of the night are, but there were many servants, to guide the guests discreetly to suites of their preference? Those <em> are </em> the tell-tale signs.”</p><p>“We’ll...keep that in mind, for next time,” Trissiny said carefully. “We did manage to find our way back eventually.”</p><p>“Ah, yes, in the morning?” Ravana’s smile widened. “I heard you were escorted back. The servants <em> are </em> positioned in that wing in the morning to do precisely that. Although I must say, courtesy dictates that, since you did not summon them to the suite itself, you point out the suite you occupied, so that they would not have to look around for where to clean up. The bedsheets and other things <em> do </em> require replacing.”</p><p>Trissiny was too red in the face to reply to that, but Gabriel stepped up.</p><p>“Hey Ravana, if you’re gonna go to all that length for your guests’ entertainment, don’t go and do something stupid like making the beds so soft. I don’t know what you nobles are used to, but for us regular folks, that’s kinda counterproductive to the intended purpose of the beds.”</p><p>Ravana controlled herself very well, Trissiny thought, but she did have to appreciate Gabriel going full Gabriel on her. It got him widened eyes and a slight jerking back of the head, from an impeccably trained noble.</p><p>“That is...not something I personally decided. But I did run into Sherwin earlier today and he complained about the same thing,” Ravana admitted. “I thought it was due to him living in rather poor conditions of his own making, most of his life, but now I see he may have had a point. Very well, I apologize for the poor standards of hospitality. Yancey will see to it that this is not a problem for you in the future,” she said, turning back towards Yancey, who curtly bowed.</p><p>“Actually, the beds in our suite are perfectly fine. It was only the suite yesterday that was the problem. And all the mirrors were a bit overkill, honestly,” Gabriel said smoothly.</p><p>“No, the mirrors were fine, actually,” Trissiny interjected in a small voice.</p><p>Gabriel raised his eyebrows at her. “Oh. Well, I defer to Trissiny’s expertise then. The mirrors were fine, but fix the bed, Ravana.”</p><p>“I assure you, it will be done,” Ravana said, pleasant smile returning. “And I’m glad you two...came to an understanding, I take it?”</p><p>They both stared at her.</p><p>“Well, whatever it is,” she continued, “Since I have more than your class as guests here, I must attempt to make sure nobody’s feelings are hurt and their stay unpleasant. Gabriel, you <em> do </em> know about Iris. Please conduct yourself taking that into consideration. For example, do not look at Trissiny with such naked desire in front her.”</p><p>“I-- What?” Gabriel gaped. “I swear there’s some kind of conspiracy going on, trying to establish me as a bigger creep than I actually am.”</p><p>“Do try to keep that in mind,” Ravana said, ignoring him. “I won’t keep you two then. Though if you’re going to meet Toby, I expect he might be delayed. He got a surprise visit from Raolo last night,” she paused, giving the impression that this was her doing. “Good luck on your venture today.”</p><p>She crossed them and walked away towards a different corridor. Her retinue swiftly followed.</p><p>“Gabe, I’m not sure if I’m horrified or turned on by you right now,” Trissiny said, when the party, except Veilwin anyway, was out of earshot.</p><p>“I lost my virginity to a dryad. I know that feeling very well.”</p><p>“On one hand, you <em> discussed our sex life with Ravana</em>,” she continued, starting to walk in their intended direction once again and gesturing Gabriel to follow. “On the other, that’s exactly what she deserved, which is the attractive part. I suppose your mouthing off can come in handy sometimes.”</p><p>“I didn’t know you liked the mirrors, though,” he commented.</p><p>“Yes, well, they let me look at you from all angles,” she admitted, with a smile.</p><p>“Oh!” he exclaimed in sudden realization. “That’s why you took all the positions where they’d be useful to you, you sneaky Eserite. They weren’t useful to me at all! We’re definitely doing it differently next time.”</p><p>“We’re not going back to that room next time,” she pointed out.</p><p>“Which makes it all the worse. Really, that makes you a very inconsiderate lover.”</p><p>Trissiny smiled wickedly as she turned a corner, “So, Raolo, huh? Well, I’m glad Toby’s gotten some much needed relaxation…”</p>
<hr/><p>Trissiny had put some thought into how long it would be appropriate to wait before having sex again. It didn’t help that her main source of information on romantic relationships was Avenist romances, where the heroines were usually separated by tragic circumstance immediately after realizing or declaring their love for each other. Well, not that there had been, or would be in the near future, hopefully, any declarations of love, in their case. She <em> had </em> half expected things to go terribly wrong in their planned exchange of blows with Archpope Justinian for the day, on that line of thought. There were plenty of reasons for things to go wrong, of course. But no, things went rather close to plan, and they were back in Madouri Manor by evening -- Trissiny didn’t even feel particularly tired. So late in the evening she was left wondering if there was any good reason <em> not </em> to go to Gabriel’s room right then and jump him. With consent, of course.</p><p>A good reason to do it would be that she could avoid Ruda coming and talking to her in her room -- they had returned too late to join everyone else at dinner, so Trissiny hadn’t seen Ruda yet today -- and infer the details of every depraved sexual act she had performed by looking into her eyes, and then also make fun of her for doing them with Gabriel. She <em> was </em> going to be performing even more depraved sexual acts by way of avoiding Ruda, but the problem could be put off indefinitely by avoiding Ruda. She was a little confused whether she wanted to have sex or avoid Ruda more at this point.</p><p>Considering all these excellent excuses, Trissiny found herself standing in front of Gabriel’s room at nine in the evening. She knocked on the door.</p><p>“Coming!” Gabriel’s muffled voice came from inside.</p><p>When he opened the door, she saw that he wasn’t the only one in it. Toby was sitting in one of the armchairs in the generously furnished bedroom. They must have been talking about the <em> situation</em>, since it had not been brought up during their adventures of the day. Well, it couldn’t be helped. She wasn’t that embarrassed when it came to Toby anyway, since they’d already had a conversation about it earlier.</p><p>“Oh, hey Trissiny! So glad to see you,” Toby said brightly, spotting her from behind Gabriel.</p><p>“Come on in,” Gabriel stepped aside and gestured at her.</p><p>Trissiny felt a little awkward about it with Toby there, but stepped in anyway. Was this going to be a group conversation rather than a night of deviant sexual acts?</p><p>“I was just leaving, in fact,” Toby said, getting up and moving towards the door.</p><p>“Oh, umm, don’t feel obligated to leave on my account,” Trissiny mumbled.</p><p>“It’s alright, I was done talking to Gabe anyway,” he said, now right in front of her and Gabriel. “I’m so happy for you two!” he added, beaming at them.</p><p>He pulled both of them into a hug. Trissiny would’ve felt awkward but it was <em> Toby</em>. It felt very comfortable and nice and Trissiny was reminded why she liked him. Then she thought about how she was in a group hug with <em> both </em> of her contemporary paladins she had had feelings for at various points and she had just been thinking about sexual deviance. It was a disturbing thought.</p><p>“Have fun, you two,” Toby said, pulling back. He beamed at them again and walked out the door. Gabriel closed the door carefully behind him, and locked it.</p><p>“Hey, I just had a thought,” Gabriel said. “You know how you used to like Toby? And we were just--”</p><p>“Gabe, stop!”</p><p>“Hey, it’s obviously weird for me. But I was just saying, from your point of view--”</p><p>“I didn’t bring up you having the hots for <em> my </em> best friend. I’d appreciate you doing the same for yours.”</p><p>“Ah fuck’s sake, Juniper,” he shook his head in disapproval. “And hey, don’t make it sound so targeted. I was generally horny,” he added, directed at her.</p><p>Trissiny furrowed her brows for a moment, but then let out a sigh and relaxed. “So Toby was here because you wanted to tell him about us?”</p><p>“Don’t be so self-absorbed. Toby came here to talk about him and Raolo,” Gabriel chided. “I have no idea why he thought <em> I </em> would be a good person to ask for advice from… Maybe he just wanted somebody to listen to him. I did say some things to him, which may or may not be useful.”</p><p>“Well done, Gabe,” she said, amused.</p><p>“But I did tell him about yesterday night’s events in the end, as you could tell.” He continued perfectly innocently, “Anyway, let’s talk about the much more interesting question of why you’re here.”</p><p>In response, she pulled him by the hand close to herself, and kissed him. She could do sudden kisses too. Surprise tongue usage, even.</p><p>“Oof, aren’t you excited?” he said when she pulled back. He was smiling in a very private sort of way, and looked just as flustered and breathless as she felt when he pulled these on her. That was a success.</p><p>She smiled and put an arm around his neck, threading the fingers of her other hand through his hair. “You <em> are </em> free this evening?”</p><p>“No, I was just gonna summon one of the other members of my harem, actually,” he said, rolling his eyes.</p><p>“That’s not as absurd as you’re trying to make it sound. Especially given what we heard about Iris earlier today.”</p><p>“I swear I didn’t know anything about that!” he objected. “Well okay, fine, I’ve heard people mention it before. But I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve even spoken to Iris.”</p><p>“That doesn’t mean you couldn’t have done other things…” she started, then stopped when he gave her a look. “But seriously though, you <em> do </em> have a fan club. You remember Layla from the Thieves’ Guild?”</p><p>“Triss, I’m sure there are as many women interested in you as me.”</p><p>“That’s not the same. <em> I’m </em> not interested in those women.”</p><p>“It’s exactly the same. I’m not interested in Iris or your friend Layla either.”</p><p>Trissiny snorted and moved back to lean against the wall by the door, pulling him with her, pressing closer against her body. He also wrapped a leg around hers, which she found very pleasing.</p><p>“Anyway, I don’t know how serious you are, Triss, but… This is really not something you need to worry about,” he gave her an earnest look, and then lowered his head immediately, fiddling with the buttons of her shirt. “I’m not gonna say it’s not something of an ego boost when a woman expresses interest in me, it still is. I don’t know if it’s okay to feel that way, honestly. But it’s one thing to act on it when you’re sad and pathetic and nobody likes you, and quite another when you’re an internationally important paladin and more importantly, you’ve got friends.”</p><p>“I appreciate you telling me that. But why is it that whenever you talk about something serious, you must always undermine it by trying to turn me on?” she replied, looking down at the two buttons of her shirt he had undone.</p><p>“Don’t begrudge a man his coping mechanism,” he said, waving a hand. “Besides, you <em> came here </em> to get turned on. And undoing buttons is fun. I seem to recall you liked undoing mine last night.”</p><p>She had to smile as he continued unbuttoning her shirt. There was something exceptionally seductive about undressing or being undressed by another person, which she didn’t get to experience the last two times because they were already, mostly, naked. The cool air of the room on her exposed skin, and the warm touch of his hands, gave her goosebumps in two whole different ways. When he was done, he untucked the shirt from her trousers, but did not take it off. And he stared at her body for way too long, like he always did, before meeting her eyes with a faint smile. It made her clutch him closer, and she felt him getting firmer on her lower abdomen.</p><p>“You always look so nice,” he murmured, tracing a finger down from her collarbone to her navel. He passed tantalizingly close to a nipple but didn’t touch it, much to her chagrin. He moved down even slower from her navel to the hem of her pants, upon reaching which he looked visibly confused.</p><p>His trousers, unlike her own, were held by a few buttons and a belt, and were likely easy to take off, though she hadn’t had the opportunity to do that herself yet. Hers, on the other hand, were an older style with a much more complicated lace fastening. It was clearly unfamiliar to him.</p><p>“Why are all your clothes so inconvenient?” he said in exasperation. “You either wear your armour, which despite being an <em> armour</em>, is actually good for leg access. Or you wear <em> this</em>,” he gestured at her pants. “I mean the shirt’s great, I’m not complaining. But wear a skirt, or something, with it.”</p><p>“<em>You </em> wear a skirt,” she scowled at him.</p><p>“Now that you mention it, I <em> have </em> wondered what it would be like to have more air between my legs. Last Rock is warmer than here, maybe it won’t be so bad…”</p><p>She burst out laughing at that. He seemed to not get what her amusement was about, which she found even more endearing. She tried to give him a kiss on the nose when she was able to stop, but he apparently thought she was going for his lips. Not to be surprise-kissed again, he went in to reciprocate himself, which resulted in her kiss being misdirected to a weird spot between his nose and mouth. And they both laughed.</p><p>“Hey Triss, I have been thinking,” Gabriel finally said. “Maybe we didn’t use the divine light right last time.”</p><p>“What are you talking about? I liked it very much,” Trissiny objected. “And where did this come from, suddenly? Is this what sparring with Justinian during the day makes you think of?”</p><p>“Maybe,” he replied with a smug expression.</p><p>“What’s your issue with how we used it? It worked perfectly fine for me. It’s a nice addition during, umm, climaxing.”</p><p>“Speak for yourself. It didn’t really do anything for me... Although looking at you burst into full golden glory at the time is quite something,” he added dreamily.</p><p>She grinned in embarrassment and delight. “Okay, let’s discuss this in bed,” in so saying, she picked him up in her arms like she had done the first time, walked to the bed, and dropped him on it, and plopped down on it herself. It was indeed a much more practical bed than the one in last night’s suite.</p><p>Used to being unceremoniously dumped by now, he immediately scrambled to get on top of her. “I’m not sure being in bed is an improvement over pinning you to a wall, frankly. But this will do.”</p><p>“It’s cute how you phrase it like you were the one in control there. Like I wasn’t <em> allowing </em> you to pin me to a wall,” she replied.</p><p>“Oh alright, General,” he conceded. “Now please allow yourself to take off your pants, so that I may demonstrate what I was talking about. As you just saw, I am quite incapable of taking them off myself.”</p><p>She complied with his request, but made sure to do it as painstakingly slowly as possible. To be fair to him, he seemed to <em> enjoy </em> the pacing, if anything, watching her work the laces with a sort of lazy hunger. He caressed her upper body at the same time, having the sense to linger on her nipples, which distracted her and made her go even slower.</p><p>“Alright, experiment away,” she said, finally getting her pants and underwear off at the same time.</p><p>He constructed a ball of light in his palm, and was moving it towards her, when she stopped him.</p><p>‘Wh-what are you trying to do, exactly? Are you gonna put that in?”</p><p>“That was the idea, yes,” he said, nonplussed.</p><p>“Are you out of your mind?!” she sat up.</p><p>“No, I’m not. It’ll fizzle after a few seconds of contact anyway,” he said defensively. “What I was aiming for was, there’s this little buzz it generates when it goes out.”</p><p>“You can’t just insert a foreign object in my body!”</p><p>“Point in fact: I have inserted several foreign objects in your body since last night. Do you want me to shape it more like those instead? That might be a good idea.”</p><p>Trissiny could only stare in horror as he dismissed the ball and did exactly that. “Trust me on this, Triss. And actually, you can try doing it yourself. Just that it might be hard to reach.”</p><p>“I’m not sufficiently-- umm, which is to say, inserting anything might hurt a bit, right now,” she objected.</p><p>“Oh,” he said, eyes widening in comprehension. “Sorry. We should, umm, do some more things first,” he dismissed the construction.</p><p>“It was going fine until you scared me with...<em> that</em>. Can you explain what the big idea is, first?”</p><p>“Okay, so you know how horseless carriages have this buzz thing?” he got off of her and sat down cross-legged on the bed, facing her. He waited for her to nod in acknowledgement before continuing, “Have you noticed that it feels kind of...<em>nice </em>?”</p><p>She snorted. “Have you been getting off every time you’ve been on a horseless carriage, Gabe?”</p><p>“Not <em> getting off</em>. And don’t judge me until you’ve considered whether it feels nice for you too,” he scoffed.</p><p>“The arcane buzz… Alright, I think I know what you mean. I can understand why someone could find the feeling good, yes.”</p><p>“And could that someone be you?”</p><p>“Maybe,” she said with a sly smile. “But that’s arcane magic though. Divine light doesn’t quite have the same effect.”</p><p>“There <em> is </em> a faint buzz, when you summon it and dismiss it. What I was thinking was, the fact that it fizzles out on contact could actually be used to our advantage. Because you’d notice the buzz more if it’s dismissed and resummoned immediately.”</p><p>“You want to insert it, dismiss it <em> inside my body</em>, and then resummon it <em> inside my body again</em>? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? You’d have to resummon it in the exact same shape, without looking at it. Otherwise you could stab me! Only one of us is invulnerable, Gabriel.”</p><p>“Okay, I’ll admit when I first thought of the idea, I was thinking of myself. Where it would be more external. But we can keep it external on you, too. You’re pretty sensitive on your clit.”</p><p>“That...could work,” she mused. “And what were you thinking of, for yourself?”</p><p>“Maybe like a ring?” he gestured with his hand, indicating where it would go. “And it’s probably best if you do mine and I do yours. What I said about dismissing it and resummoning will require quite a bit of effort and concentration, which is not conducive to enjoying yourself.”</p><p>“Why go to all this effort though? You can just enchant a solid object to give off a buzz. Maybe even have a turning on and off feature? I don’t know much about arcane magic, but that sounds like it will be a whole lot less effort than actively summoning divine light constructs.”</p><p>“I did think about that. But it’ll be complicated and I don’t know how to do it yet,” he admitted. “And I figured divine light was less likely to harm either of us if anything went terribly wrong.”</p><p>She pondered for a few moments before smiling. “Alright. Consider me convinced, for today. I can try the ring thing, and you can try...actually, any shape might work, on the <em> outside </em> of me.”</p><p>Gabriel smiled back broadly and gave her a peck on the lips. “Okay, let’s get to work!”</p>
<hr/><p>Trissiny was looming on the edge of consciousness when she realized she was in an unfamiliar setting. It was Gabriel’s room in Madouri Manor, she vaguely recalled. Well, her own room in Madouri Manor wasn’t particularly familiar either, and this was the second night in a row she had spent in a different room. With Gabriel. Having sex...or not. The details of the previous night began to emerge in her mind.</p><p>Manipulating divine light constructs in the way Gabriel had been hoping had turned out to be extremely difficult. They’d both started out with a lot of enthusiasm: it wasn’t that hard to resummon a construct a few times after it fizzled on contact. The problem was that this needed to be done extremely quickly, and repeatedly. Gabriel’s constructs lasted mere seconds after contact with her skin, and if the buzzing effect was to be maintained then they needed to be resummoned within that time. She, having been a paladin for longer than him, and a half-elf besides, had been able to make some progress. After about three hours of practice, he’d said the way she did the rings felt good...for almost a minute. Out of kindness, and possibly to display the validity of his idea, he’d really tried to pretend this was enough.</p><p>His efforts had been much less successful. He was skilled at shaping, but had a hard time resummoning the construct at the right place and within the required timeframe even once. After trying for the same amount of time as her, he could maintain his construct for not more than twenty seconds. It had been impossible to pretend that this worked for her, and she didn’t want to anyway. He was sweaty, concentrating and half-naked in a way that was rather more appealing than being fully naked, while he did this. She really, <em> really </em> wanted to have sex with him. When it seemed like there wasn’t much chance of success with the divine constructs, she’d suggested that they give up and have sex like normal people. He’d reluctantly agreed, only to realize he was too exhausted from all the light wielding to even maintain an erection. Growling in frustration, he had gone back to trying the constructs again, which soon led to him collapsing on top of her, completely burned out. She’d even felt aroused at <em> that</em>, and wanted to scream, partly out of the embarrassing realization that she was prioritizing her desire for sex over concern for his well-being. She had to contend herself with putting him to bed properly and going to sleep beside him, pondering how much difference in magical stamina her elven ancestry actually made.</p><p>
  <em> She was going to beat his ass for last night. </em>
</p><p>When she opened her eyes, Gabriel wasn’t sleeping beside her. Squinting around a bit more, she saw him sitting near her legs with his back to her. He looked unharmed, from what she could tell. He wore a shirt that looked unbuttoned, and nothing underneath, same as he had fallen asleep in. She was surprised that he had woken up before her, but then he did go to sleep before her -- she’d spent quite a while awake after he’d collapsed, thinking about how much she wanted to have sex.</p><p>He didn’t seem to have noticed that she’d woken up. She sat up quietly, dragged herself to just behind him, and still seeing no response from him, grabbed his sides and pulled him back bodily onto the bed, on top of her.</p><p>He yelped violently. “Triss… What the-- Don’t do that. It’s not good for my weak heart,” he said when he’d gathered his bearings and steadied himself.</p><p>“I kind of hate you,” she said in his ear. She was still tightly holding on to his torso like he was her prisoner.</p><p>“I thought we <em> just </em> established a day ago that you liked me. You can’t change your mind that fast. I demand at least a month’s notice.”</p><p>“I wanted sex, Gabriel. Sex! Your piss-poor divine constructs don’t count as sex.”</p><p>“You don’t have to be so mean about it,” he pouted. Or at least it seemed like he did; she couldn’t exactly see his expression from her angle. “Only one of us is half-elf. And you gave the go-ahead for the idea. It’s not <em> entirely </em> my responsibility.”</p><p>“And it’s late now, I bet. We can’t even have sex now,” she continued complaining.</p><p>“It is late compared to when you usually wake up, yeah. But also, I’m still exhausted.”</p><p>Trissiny took in a deep breath, then let it out. She repeated it a couple of times before replying. “Fine. I guess it’s fine,” she let out another breath. “I understand. And I did support the idea at first.”</p><p>She wriggled out from under him to support her back on the pillows, midway between sitting and lying down. His head was now on her lap, and she could see his face. He was also peering up at her face, and he looked too cute to be angry with, as usual. She bent down to kiss his mouth.</p><p>“You shouldn’t do divine magic until you pass out. You could’ve gotten hurt,” she said, face a few inches from his.</p><p>“I know, I’m sorry. And I actually feel fine, other than the exhaustion,” he admitted, lifting a hand up to caress her cheek. “But you were doing much better and I wanted to keep up. I know, I know, I don’t have half-elf advantages.”</p><p>“You’re so stupid. You should’ve noticed you were burning out and stopped,” she shook her head. He <em> was </em> a paladin, so she didn’t want to nag at him <em> too </em> much. She changed the subject, “I do still like the idea. But I think we’ve demonstrated that implementing it with divine magic is a bad idea. Can you go back to trying it with enchantment?”</p><p>“I didn’t try to do it with enchantment in the first place. It was just an idea. Sexual experimentation is much more fun when you have an enthusiastic partner, you know,” he smiled at her.</p><p>She straightened and smiled back before replying, “Can you <em> start </em> trying to do it with enchantment, then? I can’t help you with it, but maybe Fross could?”</p><p>“You’re okay with me sharing with Fross that I’m trying to make...<em> this</em>?” he snorted.</p><p>“Couldn’t it plausibly be for something else? And has Fross figured out sexual stuff by now?”</p><p>“Fross probably knows more about sexual stuff than you, because after she ran out of other books to read, she read all the books on sex.”</p><p>“That’s...probably true,” she said, laughing. “Hey, anyway, we should get going. I don’t want to miss breakfast too.”</p><p>He assented to that, and they both got up from bed. Trissiny decided she would go back to her own room to wash up, so she just needed to gather her scattered clothes and pat down her hair a bit. There was a minor interruption when he decided helping her dress would be just as fun as helping her undress -- he did the buttons of her shirt and mostly only observed when she tied up her pants, to learn how to untie the laces for next time, according to him. Much to her surprise, he did it in good time, instead of getting distracted and unbuttoning as much as he buttoned up.. But it did give her an opportunity to reflect on the fact that she was going to meet Ruda at breakfast. And then Ruda would look into her soul and figure out she wanted to marry Gabriel and have his babies. She didn’t actually want this, but she thought Ruda would know that she did anyway. If it didn’t go against everything else she believed in, she’d have considered it a good idea to ask the servants to bring food to her room, so she could avoid this.</p><p>When they were done, Gabriel decided the gentlemanly thing to do would be to accompany her back to her room. She thought this was laughable, but didn’t mind the company anyway. Her room was only a few doors down from his in the corridor along which all their room lay. At this time of day the corridor had plenty of natural light, as well as fairy lamps. So they didn’t notice the ball of light hovering over from the side until it was in front of them.</p><p>“Oh hey, you guys. I see you’re both coming out of Gabe’s room,” Fross’s voice chimed. “Are you doing a walk of shame?”</p><p>“A what?” Trissiny asked, startled.</p><p>“It’s when you walk back home after having sex, wearing the clothes from the previous evening. Bit of a thing in Last Rock, actually, though I think it shouldn't count if you're being accompanied,” Gabriel said. “See, I told you Fross knows more about this stuff than you.”</p><p>“Sooo, you guys <em> are </em>having sex, huh?” Fross bobbed closer to them.</p><p>“N-no,” Gabriel said.</p><p>“Define sex,” Trissiny said at the same time.</p><p>It was Gabriel’s turn to give her a look now. “I thought we agreed to say--”</p><p>“I didn’t <em> say </em> we are,” Trissiny cut him off. “Sorry, I think I’m still in complaining mode,” she added in a small voice.</p><p>Gabriel sighed and turned to Fross. “We were in fact practising divine magic late into the night.”</p><p>“Oh come <em> on</em>,” Fross made a loop in the air that looked rather like rolling one’s eyes. “I’m the biggest magic nerd in the group and even I don’t believe that. Both of you have messed-up hair -- well, Gabe’s hair is always messed up, but not Trissiny’s -- your clothes are all crumpled, and Triss, your shirt is buttoned wrong.”</p><p>“Huh, what?” Trissiny looked down to see that Gabriel had indeed missed a button and slotted the next one into its corresponding hole. The <em> idiot</em>. So he was distracted after all.</p><p>“I did use to room with Teal, you know,” Fross continued. “I know how it goes, guys.”</p><p>“We really <em> were </em> practising divine magic, Fross. For a project that didn’t work out. I’m gonna try and do it with enchantment instead now, and I might need your help actually. So hey, good timing!” Gabriel said.</p><p>“Really?” Fross said, zooming up again. “There aren’t many applications where divine and arcane magic would both work.”</p><p>“They would work in rather different ways…” Gabriel trailed off. Trissiny gave him a sidelong glance, unsure how much he could say without disclosing something extremely embarrassing.</p><p>“That certainly makes me curious. Oooh, do you wanna talk about it now?” Fross asked. “The library here is amazing and I’m sure you want to make use of it as much as I do.”</p><p>Gabriel looked at Trissiny. “I’ll probably do something weird around other people at breakfast again, right?”</p><p>“No, that’s not what I--” Trissiny started.</p><p>“So I’ll leave you to deal with Ruda by yourself, like you wanted,” Gabriel cut her off with a smirk.</p><p>“Why does it sound like this is about you not wanting to be made fun of by Ruda rather than respecting my feelings?” Trissiny frowned.</p><p>“Your <em> feelings </em> are also about not wanting to be made fun of by Ruda,” he primly replied.</p><p>“Uh, guys, everything you say makes it really obvious that you were sleeping together,” Fross chimed. “Can you please admit it so I can congratulate you? It seems to be a big deal for both of you.”</p><p>Trissiny sighed and her shoulders slumped. “Yes, yes we are. But it is true we weren’t doing that last night.”</p><p>“Congratulations then!” Fross exclaimed with genuine happiness. She ignored the claim about the previous night, probably still not believing it. “I’m sure dating Triss will be very good for you, Gabe.”</p><p>“We’re not, strictly speaking--” Gabriel stammered.</p><p>“Oh, stop it, Gabe. You don’t have to do that every time. We’re dating. If I were in it for just sex I would’ve changed my mind after last night,” Trissiny waved a hand.</p><p>Gabriel blinked several times. “Did you just casually drop that while talking to a third person? Triss, I always took you to be a person who would have serious conversations about these things. And I thought we established that last night wasn’t entirely my responsibility!”</p><p>“I let you off too easy then. I’m gonna complain about it a bit more,” Trissiny smoothly said. She felt a pang of regret immediately after. She <em> shouldn’t </em> actually have been talking about it in front of a third person, although it wasn’t clear what Fross would come to deduce from their enchanting experiment anyway. </p><p>“I’m really happy and a little annoyed at the same time. We can talk about it later,” Gabriel sighed. “Come on Fross, let’s get to work,” he added to the flying pixie.</p><p>“Are you guys having a fight? Is it because of me?” Fross asked, tone uncertain.</p><p>“No, it’s not like that, Fross,” Gabriel reassured her. “We’re confused and figuring some stuff out. That includes how to talk about it with other people. It’ll take some practice, but we’ll get there,” he looked intently at Trissiny, and gave her a small smile.</p><p>Was that his way of telling her he wasn’t <em> too </em> annoyed? Trissiny didn’t want to leave the conversation hanging, but at the same time, maybe it would be best for them to think about stuff on their own for a bit.</p><p>She smiled fondly back at him, then turned to Fross. “Hey Fross, make sure Gabe gets something to eat while you’re working, okay? He channelled too much divine magic and passed out last night.”</p><p>“Gabe, what?!” Fross exclaimed. “That’s incredibly dangerous and you should know better. And why would you channel divine magic during sex anyway?”</p><p>“Well, becoming a paladin hasn’t driven the stupid out of him,” Trissiny said. “And don’t ask too many questions about the project, Fross. It’s a bit of a secret.”</p><p>“My lips are sealed, Triss,” Fross said. “Okay, come on Gabe. <em> Now </em> let’s get to work. Honestly, you. Divine magic burnouts can be quite literal, you know…” her voice trailed off as she flew off in the direction of the main hall, from which they could access the library.</p><p>Gabriel nodded meaningfully at Trissiny and followed her. “It’s not like I use divine magic nearly as much as these guys. How was I supposed to…”</p><p>Trissiny stared at his retreating back, thinking about what had just happened. It was incredibly frustrating how awkwardly the unexpected encounters with their classmates were going. It might have been entirely her fault, because Gabriel, in his own capacity, seemed to have told Toby and that went perfectly fine, while she herself was still panicking about telling Ruda. He <em> was </em> more mature than her when it came to some things, regardless of how hard a part of her found that to believe. They really, <em> really </em> should have talked about it in more detail. If only they hadn’t spent the whole time getting distracted by sex instead.</p><p>She started walking towards her own room again when she could no longer see Gabriel and Fross. They would also need to talk about the fact that they might indeed be pursuing a relationship. She was surprised at herself for declaring her feelings on the matter so impulsively, but she was glad she had figured out how she felt about it, at least. And she did feel sure now. She absently reached for the latch when she was in front of her door, turned it and opened the door.</p><p>In yet another twist of fate involving opening the wrong door in the last few days, it was Ruda who was inside. The room was almost identical to hers and Gabriel’s, but it wasn’t hers. Ruda was sprawled on the large bed, reading a newspaper. She looked up from it quizzically when she noticed Trissiny.</p><p>“Hey roomie, hate to break it to you, but we’re not actually roomies here,” she called out.</p><p>“I--I thought it was my room,” Trissiny sighed. Was it her subconscious that made her walk into Ruda? She wasn't even surprised anymore.</p><p>“Tell me it’s because you’ve been spending more of your nights in other people’s rooms than yours. You sure look like it,” Ruda smirked.</p><p>“That’s...somewhat true,” Trissiny said. She wanted to sink into the ground right then, but steadied herself. She took a deep breath, “Can I come in? I want to talk about that, if you have time.”</p><p>“Oh boy, I sure do got time for that,” Ruda chucked merrily, sat up and patted a spot on the bed beside her. “Go on, who have you been spending your nights with, then?”</p><p>Trissiny walked in and sat down on an armchair next to the bed, rather than on the bed itself as Ruda had pointed out. She opened her mouth, trying to say something, felt too embarrassed, and closed it again.</p><p>“I see from the paper that everything went as planned with Justinian and the Bishops,” Ruda said kindly.</p><p>“What?” Trissiny said in mild confusion. “Oh, yes. Yes, that went smoothly. How was umm, the event at the Falconers’?”</p><p>“Also went smoothly, despite an unexpected guest. Made it into the papers too,” Ruda tossed the folded newspaper in her hand at Trissiny.</p><p>Trissiny caught it and flipped to the second page to see an article about the gathering at Falconer Industries. There was something about Ampophrenon the Gold turning up, which took her by surprise. But maybe it shouldn’t have, given the history between him and Vadrieny.</p><p>She was halfway through skimming the article when Ruda spoke up again. “So, it’s Arquin, is it?”</p><p>Trissiny blinked, but continued staring at the paper.</p><p>“I always knew you were gonna go for another paladin or something like that. It is kind of hilarious though, that he gets to fucking stab you with--” Ruda said chuckling</p><p>“I knew you were gonna make fun of me. It’s so embarrassing,” Trissiny mumbled over her. She was acutely aware of her cheeks reddening.</p><p>“I am very specifically not making fun of you. What are you embarrassed about? Did you get drunk and fall onto him cause he was the nearest person with a dick?”</p><p>“No. No,” Trissiny looked up at her finally. “I’ve liked him for a while now. But you’re you.”</p><p>“You know roomie, just because I make fun of some people -- all people -- doesn’t mean I don’t respect them,” Ruda drawled. “I’ve always thought you two boneheads are good for each other, romantically or otherwise.”</p><p>“Really?” Trissiny asked with some genuine surprise.</p><p>Ruda rolled her eyes. “I don’t get nearly enough credit for being good with people. Okay, come on, I’ll ask for breakfast to be brought in. Tell me how it happened. Is he any good in bed?”</p><p>Trissiny got up from her chair, placing the newspaper down on it to read later, and walked up to the bed. She supposed she would have to resign herself to the ridiculousness of having food brought in by servants -- this was important. She sat down facing Ruda, who looked amused but mostly sincere. She considered the events of the previous night before smiling, “Yes. Yes he is. And that’s all I’ll say on the matter.”</p><p><br/>
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